Page 19 of Hitting the Goal Line
“Thank you. I love it.”
“Good, because I had to do Jainie’s chores for two whole ass months to get it.”
I let out a laugh and fall in love with my gift even more. Knowing what he had to do to get this form me, makes it all that more special.
I will forever hold this locket as close to my heart as possible.
Will I be holding onto the butterflies just as long, though? That is the question.
CHAPTER SEVEN
BLAKE
18 years old
I lookat my phone as it rings and try my best to ignore it.
The person that’s calling only remembers my number when becomes convenient for them, not when they actually want to talk to me or even to see how I am doing.
And the ironic part is, if I had gotten this call a month ago or even three months ago, I would have answered it in a heartbeat. Because three months ago it would have been a celebratory call for signing my letter of intent for Montana State. A call a month ago would have been to apologize for missing one of the most important days of my life. But the call that I’m getting right now, is a little too late and definitely has motive behind it. Especially given what’s happening tomorrow night.
The call ends and as soon as it does, I pick up my phone and dial my brother.
There’s a slight chance that he’s already on his flight over to Montana from California to be here for tomorrow, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
Thankfully the call gets answered after three rings.
“Hi, Blake,” a female voice answers and as soon as I hear the voice I relax a little bit. Selena, my brother’s girlfriend of three years, is one of my favorite women in the world and I’m more than happy to talk to her than my brother any day.
“Hey, Lennie,” I say, calling her the nickname Hunter has for her, all while a smile spreads on my face. “Is my brother around?”
“Nope,” She answers sounding annoyed. “He forgot his wallet at home so he went to go get it.”
“I’m guessing that you guys were already at the airport when he realized he didn’t have it.” I theorize.
I swear I can hear her nodding from the other side. “We were at security. I wonder how a man who flies so damn much forgets what he needs to actually fly, because this isn’t the first time.”
“And you have his phone because?”
“Because he panicked and threw all his shit at me so that I can look through it, while he looked on the floor and with security just in case he dropped it and someone turned it in. But then he remembered that we put an AirTag in it because again, this has happened more than once, and saw that he left it at home. He took my phone to track it, which makes no sense, since he could have used his phone, but who am I going to argue with him.”
I’m not a relationship type of guy. The girls that I’ve dated have mostly just been to pass the time and to have a little fun. Not a single one of them has been anything serious, nothing more than a few months. According to my mom, the most serious relationship that I’ve had is with hockey and Sophia. And I plan to keep it that way. But I’m not going to lie, having a relationship like the one Hunter and Selena have would be great.
Maybe once I’m settled in the NHL, I will put in the effort to have something like they do.
“Can you have him call me back when he gets back to the airport?” I ask her.
Ever since we went out to California for Christmas three years ago, Hunter and mine’s relationship has improved big time. We talk a few times a week and he has come home a lot more often in the last three years than he did the five years before. When he got drafted into the NFL by the San Francisco Gold, I for sure thought that the guy that put football before everything else, would come back and forget about his family all over again. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
When deciding on whether I should enter the draft this year or not, he was there for me, giving me advise and walking me through every single thought process. He told me that one point he was contemplating not even entering the NFL draft because he didn’t know why he was playing football anymore. He went down the rabbit hole of how, for a time, it was no longer fun anymore because of all the pressure our dad was putting on him to choose the right team. And how he didn’t want to play because of the money but because he loved it.
It was during those conversations that I learned just how strained his relationship with our dad had gotten and that he hated that Jainie and I, weren’t getting treated the same way he was.
And here I thought that Hunter had the easier end of the stick when it came to Roy Jacobi.
“Yeah, I can tell him. What’s up?” Selena asks, not because she wants to intrude in my business but because she genuinely wants to see if there is anything she can do to help.
I let out a sight and tell her. “Dad keeps calling.”
